Mineworkings is a photographic-based project on the theme of revisiting Scottish mining communities. This involved new photographs as well as incorporating a range of archival photographs, audio reminiscences and display of key personal artefacts related to my participants, who were at the heart of this project. The inspiration came from a group of photographs of Scottish miners and their families taken by the American photographer Milton Rogovin in 1982. His photographs are in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. With the photographer’s medium format contact sheets as starting points, Mineworkings realised new work through close collaboration with those same communities visited by Rogovin in 1982.
The resulting artworks are shown alongside the photographs of Milton Rogovin in Before and After Coal: Images and Voices from Scotland’s Mining Communities at The National Galleries of Scotland (Portrait), Edinburgh (23 March 2024 – 15 September 2024); Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, Fife (7 December 2024 – 20 April 2025) and The Baird Institute, East Ayrshire (8 May – 23 August 2025).
This is also the 40th year anniversary of the miners’ strike (1984-85).
List of Resources
One-to-one interviews with former mineworkers recorded by Nicky in 2023, as part of this series. Each provides an account in his own words about how they came to work in the mining industry. The interviews include themes of comradery, experiences of working underground, views on the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 and what that meant for their lives after coal. Listeners can also download interview transcripts.
Donald Fulton
‘I’ve got to say I’m fiercely proud that I was a miner. I still am. Fiercely proud of being a striking miner. That’ll always be there.’
Jim McMahon
‘Once you’re a miner, you’re always a miner. It never leaves you.’
Iain Chalmers
‘Without the history it’s just bric-a-brac.’
Andrew ‘Watty’ Watson
‘My 19th birthday was 9th November 1984. I was the youngest of 206 strikers sacked in Scotland. I’ll be glad to tell you about the circumstances of my victimisation.’
Thomas Dickson
‘Sometimes, you smelt the water before you seen it…’
Linda Anderson
‘My job on a Friday night was to make my dad’s ‘piece’ with homemade raspberry jam ready for him to the take to the ‘Lady’.’ Recorded by the National Galleries of Scotland, March 2024
In these blogs and audio recordings, Nicky shares some of the stories she encountered and the roles that photographs and other forms of memorabilia have played in her work.
Other Related Resources
Bird, Nicky. Mineworkings: Photography, Oral History and a Fiercely Proud Striking Miner in Visual Culture of Britain, December 2024
Before and After Coal
For more about the exhibition and the National Galleries of Scotland project.
Before and After Coal | Audio Tour by The National Galleries of Scotland Conversations with Milton Rogoivn’s photographs: Linda Anderson, Nicky Bird, Iain Chalmers, June Robertson, Paula and Malaika Rogovin, Watty Watson, March 2024.
Bird, Nicky. ‘Shadowing Rogovin: Retracing Family of Miners, Scotland 1982,’ in Studies In Photography, 60-69, The Scottish Society of the History of Photography. Summer 2020. ISSN: 1462-0510
TOP IMAGE (detail)
Donald Fulton, East Ayrshire III, 2023
Detail from Mineworkings (Ayrshire 1), 2023-24, by Nicky Bird
